Pharma bro, Martin Shkreli, convicted during securities fraud trial

Shkreli was convicted on Friday (Saturday NZ time) of two counts of securities fraud and one count of conspiracy.

Although U.S. District Court Judge Kiyo Matsumoto banned Shkreli from discussing the charges against him to reporters after he called federal prosecutors "junior varsity" as the trial began in June, Shkreli has continued to vent about it on social media, mostly via Facebook Live and YouTube videos.

Martin Shkreli was convicted of fraud by jurors in a USA court in Brooklyn on Friday, in a blow for the controversial former drug company and hedge fund executive, who had forcefully and repeatedly proclaimed his innocence.

Renowned "pharma bro" Martin Shkreli was found guilty on three of eight counts of securities fraud by a jury in Brooklyn after five days of deliberation by the seven-woman, five-man jury.

The conviction follows a five-week trial during which Shkreli boasted that he was "so innocent" and would receive an apology from prosecutors after the jury exonerated him.

Shkreli became a lightning rod in 2015 when Turing bought the rights to sell Daraprim, a drug available since 1953 to treat a parasite infection, to $750 a pill.

Prosecutors argued that his previous companies were part of a Ponzi scheme to pay off lost millions to investors of two failed hedge funds (MSMB Capital and MSMB Healthcare), using stock from a different pharmaceutical company, Retrophin.

Shkreli's lawyer Ben Brafman is expected to make comments on the decision momentarily.